The parking ticket that cracked the Son of Sam case — and the letter detectives couldn't ignore

The witness saw a man holding a parking ticket near the scene of the final shooting.

That scene was Brooklyn, July 31, 1977.

The attack had killed one person and wounded another.

Months of work had come before this moment.

Thousands of tips.

A stalled investigation.

A letter left at one scene, addressed to police Captain Joseph Borrelli.

It was signed "Son of Sam."

That name became the case's public label.

The ticket was just paper.

It was also the hinge.

Police traced it to a 1975 Ford Galaxie.

The car was registered to David Berkowitz.

He was 24 years old.

He worked for the postal service.

A parking ticket.

A car.

A name.

The breakthrough arrived through the mundane.

It is not established that the witness identified Berkowitz by name at the scene.

The record states only that a witness reported seeing a man with a parking ticket.

That report was enough.

The ticket led to the car.

The car led to the man.

The man was arrested on August 10, 1977.

How could a piece of paper end a year of terror?

It traced a path.

It gave the investigation its first solid thread.

After months of stalled work, the ticket moved everything.

A YEAR OF ATTACKS

The first attack came on July 29, 1976, in the Bronx.

A gunman fired on two young women in a parked car.

One woman was wounded.

Her companion, Donna Lauria, was killed.

The gunman was later identified as David Berkowitz.

That identification came more than a year later.

Between that first shooting and July 31, 1977, the gunman carried out a series of attacks across New York City.

The attacks happened in the Bronx, in Queens, and in Brooklyn.

The targets were mostly young couples in parked cars.

A second attack killed one victim and wounded another.

A third attack wounded two people.

A fourth attack killed one person.

A fifth attack wounded a woman.

A sixth attack wounded a woman.

The exact dates of each attack beyond the first and the last are not in the record.

The source gives the overall span and the bookends.

What is in the record is the rhythm: a year of shootings, then silence, then another.

The city waited.

Police received thousands of tips.

None of them produced a suspect.

Then the shooter left a letter at one scene.

It was addressed to Captain Joseph Borrelli, the lead detective.

It was signed "Son of Sam."

That name became the case's public label.

It did not crack the case.

The letter gave the investigation a name, not a man.

The attacks continued.

The final attack came on July 31, 1977, in Brooklyn.

It killed one victim and wounded another.